John Cox's tactic: Tune out Trump and federal issues while focusing on California economy

Gubernatorial candidate John Cox made three stops throughout the Coachella Valley during the last weekend of September 2018.
Palm Springs Desert Sun

Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox, right, his wife Sarah Cox and daughter Julianne Cox listen to Anthony Johnson of Indio at The Street Fair at College of the Desert in Palm Desert on Sunday, September 30, 2018.(Photo: Taya Gray)

Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox likes to say he’s not a politician. In interviews, stump speeches and on his “Help Is On The Way” statewide bus tour, he has reiterated to potential voters that he’s a businessman, unlike his opponent Gavin Newsom, who has held elected office since the turn of the millennium.

But the difficulties of running as a Republican in one of the nation’s bluest states have molded Cox, a businessman formerly known for unusual campaign finance reform proposals, into a politician insistent to stay on message.

On Sunday, days after the Public Policy Institute of California released a poll showing him 12 percentage points behind Newsom, Cox’s bus tour made three stops in the Coachella Valley where he introduced himself to voters as “a businessman, not a politician” before launching into his political talking points primarily focused on the state’s fiscal issues.

Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox speaks to a priest at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Indio on Sunday, September 30, 2018.(Photo: Taya Gray)

With the election less than a month away, Cox is tuning out the political noise emanating from the D.C. beltway and focusing on California's economy. He believes Democrats invoke Trump’s weekly controversies to divert attention away from the issues plaguing California residents and thinks his emphasis on reining in costs of living will attract voters and allow him to surpass Newsom in the campaign’s final stretch.

Cox’s tour began at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, a bilingual Catholic Church in Indio, where he, his wife and his daughter attended mass. With his family and campaign staff in tow, Cox then went to a farmers’ market at College of the Desert to shake hands with voters. He ended his valley tour shaking more hands and hobnobbing with diners at Keedy’s Fountain Grill in Palm Desert.

Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox, his wife Sarah Cox and daughter Julianne Cox walk to his campaign bus after attending mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Indio on Sunday, September 30, 2018.(Photo: Taya Gray)

Cox earned his fortune as a tax attorney and, later, in the real estate industry and has long visited the region to play tennis, golf and visit friends, he said. In 2014, he purchased a vacation home in Toscana, an Indian Wells development complete with a golf course and tennis courts, for $2.5 million to complement his primary residence in Rancho Santa Fe, a suburb of San Diego.

As his bus traversed the Coachella Valley, Cox, who has self-financed most of his campaign, funneling more than $5 million into its coffers, approached Democrats and Republicans alike to discuss the most pressing problems facing California, many which he believes have stemmed from having Democrats in power.

Speaking to shoppers and business owners manning booths at the farmers’ market, Cox stressed how high taxes and government inefficiency were taking their toll on California residents. He emphatically agreed with a mother complaining about the cost of higher education for her children. He told a Trump supporter that he supported the president in his quest to cut taxes, decrease regulation and stand up to dictators. And the businessman told most of the individuals he spoke to about how government overreach was responsible for California having the highest cost of living in the country.

Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox listens to Daniel Lee at The Street Fair at College of the Desert in Palm Desert on Sunday, September 30, 2018.(Photo: Taya Gray)

Absent was the John Cox of three years ago, who proposed making it a requirement for elected officials to label themselves with the logos of their top campaign contributors; the John Cox who, less than a year ago, was pushing a ballot initiative that proposed creating a “citizen legislature” governed by 12,000 neighborhood representatives. With election day nearing, Cox has carefully stuck to his fiscally focused message, steering clear of his previous reform proposals.

On the campaign trail, Cox has navigated the nation’s current polarized political landscape by narrowing in on fiscal issues and avoiding talking about President Trump, who enjoys only a 31 percent approval rating in California, an May Berkeley-IGS poll found.

In March, during an appearance at the Fantasy Springs Resort and Casino in Indio, when a supportive audience member asked Cox how he felt about President Trump, Cox sidestepped and joked, “Are you with the media? The media loves to ask me about this, but Donald Trump is not running for Governor of California."

In June, after Cox spoke at the Riverside County Republicans’ monthly meeting at the Mission Inn in Riverside, he agreed to be interviewed. But when asked about the Trump administration’s family separation policy, which was dominating that week’s headlines, Cox hurriedly exited the Mission Inn.

As he speed-walked toward his car, Cox offered a partial explanation, saying he opposed families being separated but that immigration is not directly related to being the governor of California: “Immigration is a federal issue. It’s a broken federal system that’s got to be resolved,” he said before shutting the car door.

On Sunday morning in the back of his green “Help Is On The Way” campaign bus, he reiterated his views on immigration and spoke similarly on abortion; Cox said it was a federal issue, already settled in California and the rest of the U.S. He refused to expand on his personal beliefs, which he said voters were less interested in than electing a governor who can address the state's high cost of living.

When asked if Cox had taken a position on net neutrality, in light of the administration’s lawsuit against California, Matt Shupe, his campaign spokesman, again said, “John is focused on California’s affordability crisis.”

Cox’s sparse answers to questions about President Trump and issues like immigration, abortion, or net neutrality make it difficult to characterize him with certainty as a loyal foot soldier in Trump’s army, as Newsom has referred to him. But his positions on some pressing issues, which past candidates for governor have addressed, remain unclear.

Taxes, regulation, the state budget, and pensions make up the majority of Cox’s platform and talking points. The emphasis places him in line with HP Exec Meg Whitman and banker Neel Kashkari, the Republicans’ last two gubernatorial candidates, who ran on their business acumen and lost by 13 and 20 percentage points respectively.

California Republican gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari faces off against State Assemblyman Tim Donnelly in a radio debate on Thursday, May 15, 2014, in Anaheim.
(Photo:
AP Photo/Alex Gallardo
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“The president is not the issue in California. It is with my opponent, but the president has nothing to do with the price of housing, nothing to do with the gas tax, nothing to do with the school system that’s 47th in the nation,” he said. “That’s not Washington. That’s not Trump. It’s the political class that’s failed the people of this state.”

In order to be competitive against Newsom, Cox will have to consolidate support from California Republicans supportive of the president, including those who supported Cox’s challenger from the right, Assemblymember Travis Allen, in the primary election. He’ll also need moderates who may disapprove of the president. In March, he called the pursuit, “a delicate dance.”

Even though a Republican has not been elected to statewide office in California since 2006, Cox said he’s optimistic about his prospects, and that he thinks he’s more relatable than Whitman or Kashkari.

He also said he hopes state’s history of alternating between Republican and Democratic governors – Pete Wilson, then Gray Davis, then Arnold Schwarzenegger and then Jerry Brown – might mean a partisan cycle could be on his side.

“Especially now, people want change,” he said. “In the last eight years, we’ve recovered from the Great Recession, but people in California, I don’t think they feel they’ve really gotten their recovery. The cost of living has dampened recovery here.”